So here we have the part where Peter starts to get over Simone and get closer to Bella, which is based on some stuff that I basically ripped from canon and tweaked. I'll be doing pretty much the same thing throughout this story, sticking fairly close to the original storyline but slightly (or not so slightly) changing certain things as I need to.

Chapter 3: Of All the Gin Joints In All the World

Peter went back to work, but his job wasn't as fulfilling as it once was. He used to think he was doing all he could to make the world a better place by making the last days of the dying more comfortable; now he was realizing he might be capable of much more, but his near-fatal fall had shown him that he had a lot of work to do. Whatever new abilities he was developing, he wasn't going to get them under control sitting at Charles Deveaux's bedside. Much as he'd hate to leave the man, he was coming to the conclusion that he could do more good elsewhere - honestly, Mr. Deveaux most likely didn't even know he was there anymore.

Just as his shift ended, the door to his client's bedroom burst open, and in swept the other reason he was reluctant to leave his job: Simone. "Peter, you're off now, right? Are you busy?"

"No, I was just about to head home. But listen, since you're here, we need to talk-" If he left right before her father died, he owed it to her to try to explain his choice.

She didn't seem to hear him. "Good, I need you to come with me someplace."

"Where?" Ignoring his question, Simone began riffling through her father's medications. "What're you looking for?"

"Morphine."

"Right here. Listen, Simone, I really need-"

"Whatever it is, it's gonna have to wait. Right now I really need you to come with me." She put the bottle of morphine in her purse. "You're a nurse - you can give out a shot. You can help him."

"Help who?"

The person in question turned out to be Simone's boyfriend, Isaac Mendez, artist and heroin addict. One of his paintings grabbed Peter's attention since it featured a character who looked remarkably like him - it looked a lot like him flying - but he couldn't help noticing Simone's desperation as they worked to save Isaac from an overdose too. It was obvious in the way she cradled his head and pleaded with him to hang on that she loved him deeply.

Well, she did tell me she was seeing someone. Peter had (mostly) given up hoping for anything to happen between them the second those words left her lips even if it hadn't changed how he felt about her, but seeing her and Isaac together gave him the push he needed to really start trying to get over her. If she loved someone else, moping over her wouldn't do him any good.

Talking to her about what he was going through was out of the question now too; between her terminally ill father and drug-addicted boyfriend, she had enough on her plate. Nathan had already proven himself a poor choice for a confidant on this issue, but Peter really wanted to talk to somebody. Not his mother; she already thought he'd inherited a mental disorder from his father, so who…

He pulled out his phone, and the first name on his alphabetized list of contacts caught his eye: Bella Swan. It had been a few days since he got her number, and he hadn't used it yet. He'd thought about it once or twice, but there had never been a good reason to call her. Of course, she might not be any more open-minded than anyone else he knew, but out of all the people on his contacts list, she was the only one he wasn't positive would laugh at him. He selected her number and hit the Call button.

Bella picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's Peter - Peter Petrelli. Listen…how'd you like to go out for a drink?"

"Tonight?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry, I can't, I- Holy crow! Could you please respect my privacy just once?"

"Excuse me?"

"Not you, I m-"

Bella's voice abruptly got cut off. Peter heard some indistinguishable noises over the phone, and then a distinctly different female voice came on. "She meant me."

"Who is this?"

The voice giggled. "I'm Elle, Bella's best friend, and she made a mistake before; she'd love to go out with you." There was a muffled exclamation and what sounded like a short scuffle, and then Elle said, "No, sorry, Bella's insisting she wants to stay in like some boring old hermit, but nobody says she has to do it alone. Why don't you come over here?"

She told him where to go, but he didn't immediately flag down a cab. "Are you sure? If Bella's with you, I don't want to intrude-"

"Nope, I'm on my way out, because most people don't stay home on Friday night unless they're dead or over forty. Later."

Elle hung up, leaving Peter feeling very disconcerted. He still wanted to see Bella, but if her friend was always this obnoxiously pushy, he hoped she would be gone by the time he got there.

###

"You know, according to most medical definitions of the word, you are dead."

"But not over forty," Elle retorted. "Want your phone back?" She flipped it across the room to the desk where Bella had parked herself; she wasn't going to give Elle the satisfaction of trying to take it back, knowing she wouldn't be able to, but she had to stick around to hear what Elle said to Peter. It landed neatly on the desktop, narrowly missing Bella's head as she ducked rather than attempting to catch it.

Edward appeared in the doorway, announcing his presence with a light rap on the open door. "Did I hear you say we're going out tonight?"

"Yeah, Bella needs the house to herself so she can…entertain, and I wanna dance, so go change your clothes. You might want to change too, Bella - personally, I think those sweats look great on you, but Peter will probably think you're a slob if he sees you like this."

Bella glanced down at herself, taking in the shapeless old pants and shirt that was big enough for her dad to wear, squeaked, and ran for her closet. When she emerged five minutes later, wearing an outfit that didn't make her look like a bum, Elle was gone, but Edward was still hovering in the doorway, although he obviously hadn't been there the whole time - his casual attire had been replaced by charcoal gray pants and a matching jacket over a dark button-down shirt.

Bella tried not to feel nervous - she knew she had nothing to fear from Edward, but the fact of the matter was that they didn't interact much aside from when their mutual desire for Elle's company drew them together. She was hardly ever alone with him, and when she was, his intense stare still made her as uncomfortable as it had the first day she was forced to sit beside him in the biology lab of Forks High School. "Yes, Edward?"

He took a step inside the room, careful to maintain a safe distance from Bella. "You aren't upset about Elle and me leaving, are you?"

"Of course I'm upset. I don't want Peter here - I don't think I should be alone with him. What if I hurt him? He's a lot more breakable than you and Elle…"

"I don't think you will. I know you still have issues with getting close to people, but you have control of your ability now."

"What if my control isn't good enough?" Bella fretted.

"I'm confident that it is. The only thing holding you back from engaging with people is your fear, but you can't live the rest of your life shut off from your own kind."

"Says the guy whose family is famous in Forks for being eccentric recluses," she grumbled.

"That's entirely different - humans aren't my kind," Edward said with a smile. "You are human, though, and sometimes I wonder if Elle and I did you a disservice by letting you get so attached to us; your only close friends are a pair of vampires, and that can't be healthy. You should be with other humans."

"It's not that hard," Elle added as she sauntered back in. "I have conversations with humans all the time without killing them, and I actually have a reason to want to. If I can pretend to be normal, you definitely can."

Bella wasn't listening to the pep talk; she was too busy staring in awe at the beautiful blonde. Elle was dressed to impress in black leather pants and a gold silk halter top that plunged to outrageous depths in the front, while the back of it consisted only of the minimum amount of fabric required to hold the thing together, leaving Elle largely uncovered. Bella almost wished she had the nerve to wear something like that.

"I look pretty good for a dead girl, don't I?" Elle basked in the admiration of her friend and lover for a minute before snapping her fingers and saying, "Okay, eyes back in your heads, both of you. Bella, I think whatever you're cooking needs to come out of the oven now - it's starting to smell overdone."

"Crap!" Bella hurried off to the kitchen to rescue her dinner, and Elle turned a sultry smile on her mate.

"C'mon, Edward, let's go have some fun."

###

The club was filled with the earsplitting throb of bass-heavy music, smoky neon strobe lights, and a bitter scent that Edward knew far too well for his liking. Elle, however, had never encountered it; her nose wrinkled at the unfamiliar odor. "What is that?"

"Narcotics," Edward informed her. "Heroin, and some cocaine as well. That man is the supplier." He pointed out the drug dealer - who, though they had no way of knowing it, was also the source of the illegal 'painting supplies' that had almost killed Isaac Mendez earlier that day - to Elle.

Her topaz eyes narrowed as she peered speculatively at him. He was exactly the type of person Edward would have targeted during his rebellious teen phase…

"Which is hardly relevant now, since I no longer hunt humans," he said sharply.

Elle turned to face him. "Who said anything about hunting? We don't have to drink the guy's blood; I just don't want to smell his crap while I'm trying to enjoy our first actual date since we got here." She bumped him playfully with her shoulder. "Besides, we'd practically be performing a public service."

Edward eyed her with a look that said he still had reservations, but he didn't argue. Aside from the fact that arguing with Elle was generally useless, she was right - the world wouldn't be worse off for having one less drug dealer in it.

Taking his silence for capitulation, she smiled triumphantly. "Go get the girl out of the way."

Edward easily slipped through the mass of writhing bodies on the dance floor, took hold of the girl who was searching her cheap purse for the cash to pay for her next hit, and pulled her away. "May I cut in?" She started to protest, but he flashed her his best smile and she lapsed into a dazed silence, staring up at the handsome vampire as if mesmerized.

Elle appeared at the dealer's elbow just as he began to voice his anger over losing a customer. "Hey, don't be mad. Who needs her when you could have me?"

He agreed, offering no resistance when she pulled him into the middle of the floor and began dancing rather provocatively with him. He thought it was his lucky night. Elle, on the other hand, clearly wasn't attracted to him at all; she kept her gaze locked with Edward's the whole time, pleased that he was watching her show off her skill at captivating her prey. We should do this more often. What's the point of being at the top of the food chain if you never have fun with it?

Edward ground his teeth, wishing she could hear his thoughts as well. Despite knowing she wasn't enjoying herself - or if she was, it was only in the way a hunter enjoyed stalking a deer - he still hated her letting that piece of scum paw at her. "Finish it," he snarled under his breath; she heard him through the cacophony of music, laughter, and the occasional shouted conversation, but no one else did, not even the humans standing much closer to him. They really were practically deaf and blind, poor things.

She grinned, nodded, and leaned in to whisper in the man's ear. His eyes widened and he nodded vigorously. Definitely my lucky night-

Edward tuned out the rest of his disgusting thoughts and made his way to the exit after Elle, who was leading her soon-to-be victim by the hand. He reached the alley behind the club just in time to see her shoving the dealer into the wall and running her palm over the front of his pants. She looked up, saw Edward, smiled, and clenched her hand. The man screamed as she crushed his genitals in her fist, but his agony was short-lived; she soon crushed his throat with her other hand.

Elle then dropped him, leaping back as the body fell to the ground and twitched a little before finally going still. "Well, that was fun. Can we do it again? Whoa!"

Edward had seized her roughly and pushed her against the wall, cracking the concrete. "You will never let garbage like that put their hands on you again, do you understand?"

Her pupils dilated, turning her eyes black. "Will you get all possessive if I do?"

"Probably."

"Then I'll have to find more sleazebags to hit on," she teased. Edward growled. "Come on, you know you've got nothing to worry about - I wasn't going to let him do anything. I only invited him out here to kill him."

"Yes, and that's another thing - now we have a body on our hands."

"A dead drug dealer," Elle scoffed. "I bet tons of people wanted to kill him."

"And the damage to his genitalia? Which was quite impressive, by the way."

Elle shrugged. "Angry ex? This guy was such a dog he probably left a trail of pissed-off women a mile long."

Edward sighed; she had an answer for everything. The ease with which this girl could get away with murder was slightly disturbing. "I'm still going to dump the body elsewhere; I don't want him found here in case anyone who saw him with you might be able to identify you to police. Wait here, and do not pick up anyone else."

"Don't keep me waiting too long," was Elle's swift comeback.

She was still right where Edward had left her when he came back, though, so he took her back inside to dance; good behavior deserved a reward, after all. "Well, does the place smell less offensive now?" he asked as they wrapped their arms around each other and started moving with the music.

Elle sniffed the air, taking in the scents of human sweat, alcohol, a hundred different kinds of perfume and clothing, and glow-in-the-dark spray paint that decorated the interior, flashing with every pulse of the strobe lights. There was still a hint of the bitter narcotic stench too, but it was fading rapidly now that the source had been removed. "It could still use some Glade."

Next chapter: probably mostly a long P/B scene that should have been in this chapter; Elleward were only supposed to go out to give Peter and Bella some time alone together, but then I started wondering exactly what vampire!Elle would do while out on a date. As we can see, she's still got that weird blend of sadistic sociopathy and altruism - she didn't hurt any innocent people and removed a menace to society, but she killed him in a particularly painful way just because she thought the drugs he was carrying around stank.